C8SGT w/CG5

[TheCrazedLog]

Hey all:

I'm considering very hard the Celestron C8-SGT on the CG5, but as always with me, I had made up my mind and then went "uhh... am I sure?"

Objectives:
- Portable. I need to use it and whack it in the back of a plane
- A good mount. The CG5 I'm not sure about. Anyone used it? Could it take the C8 and a guidescope and related crap and be chunky enough to do DSO photos?
- Good for visual on DSO (reluctant to go below 8")
- 3 grand budget.
- Being able to put a BT-252 10" dob on the mount (sans the dob mount of course...) would be an added bonus.

Would you go for a Eq6 with a BD mak 6", an Eq5 with a BD mak 6", or the C8 on the C5? Any experience with any of these bits would be awesome.

As far as I can tell, the only real difference between a mak and a sgt is that one has a long focal length and gives you slightly better contrast.

Thanks

Anthony

[scarper]

Mount, mount, mount, eq6 or similar would be ideal for all those situations except portability........the mount inc weights are around 33 kgs.
It will handle anything you throw at it weight wise. (30kgs is the recommended limit, but have heard of over 40 kgs being used on these mounts)

That said I can carry mine completley setup with 8"sct from the house to the garden.....albeit slowly.

[sheeny]

I have exactly that - a C8 SGT XLT. BTW the SGT refers to the CG5 mount.:)

The CG5 will be more portable than an EQ6 (weightwise most significantly), but it is limited in payload capacity.

I would say the CG5 is fine for a 8" SCT for optical or planetary AP work. A guide scope will be pushing the boundaries too far for DSOs. The CG5 will probably handle an 8" SCT and a piggyback camera for widefields however.

If you are serious about DSO AP, go with the EQ6:thumbsup: though its a heavy mount for travel IMHO.

I'm just about to upgrade my mount (when the tax cheque arrives:D) probably to an EQ6 (though I'd love a G11 but there's a big price difference).

Al.

[TheCrazedLog]

Excellent, thanks for those replies.

I think I'll go with the CG5 mount anyway, as if i want to do DSO I'll grab a ED80 and bolt that onto the CG5 in place of the C8.

I'm not sure how much i want to go down the AP path, so I'll dabble a bit in it with the C8/CG5 i think.

Thanks!

Anthony